Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1887-01-22

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mounted the scaffold, the merchandise made
of the instruments of his execution, were a
fitting termination to q trial and conviction.
| the like of which we trust will never again
blacken the records Of Virginia.
We have profound respect for the
majesty Of the law which consigned
Cluverius to the grave at Richmond
last week, and not word of senti
ment or sympathy for the penalty
inflicted by the law, but there are
strong exceptions to be taken in
the case, aud contempt akin to
that for the crime itself, for some of
the daily papers which amused
themselves over his execution and
passed Judgment beyond limits over
which God alone presides. At the
time of Lillian Madison's death, pub.
lie sympathy and Indignation were
so aroused that all the surroundings
of the trial were influenced against
the prisoner, and lending assistance
to his conviction was considered a
service to the Lord of all Justice
The Jury was not above suspicion,
for where whiskey is alleged com
pany reason is a crowd. To day in
the light of calm consideration, no
jury would bring in verdict of
murder in the first degree upon cir
cumstantial evidence that bordered
on superstition from the first to the
last. Every Court has it's retinue
of hangers-on, who have nothing in
the world to do but watch out for
chance job that suits their idle fancy.
If such were on the Cluverius jury,
land the whiskey allegations
indicate their banefnl presence
they were predisposed to bring In a
popular verdict by the very fact
that upon it depended their future
trade in stock. The Lord preserve
US from the hands of a picked up
jury. When before a Grand Jury
once, the only man who asked US a
question was one of those miserable
selfinterested pick-ups, and we have
ever since believed that he was put
on by his own request of the deputy.
But for the conscientious determina-
ton of the other members, we would
have been pnt to the trouble and
expense of answering in charge in
which the picked-up juror was him.
self morally responsible. Judges of
Courts do not realize the dangers
and risks Justice runs in the hands
of Court loungers, or they would i'm
pose heavy fine upon deputy
who picks up a willful nothing to do.
The acts of the lower and higher
Courts through which the Cluverius
case passed, are not herein question
ed for it would be presumption to
suppose tor a moment that the
Judges and the Governor were
moved by any other consideration
than their high calling and response
ble duty to the Commonweal.
1t is not impossible that Cluverius
dead rose to higher and truer no.
bility than Cluverius living. Besides
himself, there were two women in
the case. Admitting that be seduc-
ed the one, and refused to make
honorable PREPARATION by marriage,
it is an equally unfortunate and dis
graceful admission that far greater
and more prominent men than him.
self. known to history, current as
well as written, have done no better.
The second woman in the case is as
much mystery as the murder. He
was engaged to her, report says,
and she visited him while in prison,
deeply yelled, but further nothing is
known ; except that feminine jeal-
ousy is equivalent in an emergency
of love to that ingenuity which en-.
compassed mans first fall. Cluver-
ius by his death may have atOned
for the crime of his own or another's
guilty love. The verdict and the
penalty are legally attested, but the
rest is according to each ones specu
lative fancy.
One of the mysteries finite mind
cannot comprehend, is the judgments
of the infinite. With no "irrever.
ence for holy things" we do say
that some of the newspapers of the
day are the nearest possessors of in
finite Judgment here below. In the
Cluverlns case, the Baltimore Amer
lean and the Mirror saw him in COM
pany with his cousin on that fatal
night; heard him trying to persuade
her to go away and spare him his
part In their guilty shame; heard
her protesting and demanding hon.
cradle reparation saw the anger
klndle IN his eye and the evil in his
heart,-saw him strike her in his
passion, and dumbfounded in his